A chronicler called Moldova “a
country on the way of all disasters”. Our Chisinau city is on the same way and
historical storms have been raging over it for centuries. Chisinau (Kishinev) was repeatedly trampled down by the
Tatar-Mongolian hordes and burnt down by the Turkish. The territory
of Moldova is located on the boundary
of the Eastern and the Western Europe and has
been populated from the ancient time. The first leavings of the post
Paleolithic sites, discovered here by the archeologists, refer to 35-8 thousand
years BC, to 10-8 thousand years – the tracks of the Chernyakhovskaya culture,
treasures of the Roman coins – to the IV century AD, the Slavonic settlements
to the VIII-IX centuries. The ancient Romans and wandering tribes, that used to
migrate over this territory, left vestiges of their stay. The raids of the
Tatar-Mongolians Golden Horde were especially devastating. They went on up to
the 90-ies of the XIV century, when invaders were compelled to retreat under
pressure of European peoples also out of this territory, that historically was
a part of the middle-aged Moldovan state.

One can hardly find a city,
that celebrated its 500-year anniversary twice, but Chisinau (Kishinev) is the one: under the Romanians and
in 1966 in the time of the Soviet power. It happened, because Chisinau (Kishinev)
was firstly mentioned in historical documents in 1436 in the official document
of voivodes (a voivode is the head of the army, district or province) of
Moldova Ilie and Stephan Oanchya to the logofet - the head of gospodar’s office
(gospodar - the title of the king of Moldova). In this document where
the boundaries of village lots about the river of Reut
are specified, that were given to him for the loyal service. The Chisinau (Kishinev) was
mentioned there too: «... and at the river of Bik, on that side, in the valley
coming down to Chisheneului lui Acbas by the stream where there is a Tatar
settlement near the forest...» And according to the Soviet historiography a
built-up area in the place of the contemporaneous Chisinau (Kishinev)
was mentioned in 1466 in the charter of the Moldovan gospodar Stephen the Great
to his uncle, boyar Vlaicul, for the ownership of the village Chisinau (Kishinev) around the well of Albishioara. More
than a hundred years the Vlaicul’s offspring possessed these places.

Under Ottoman yoke set up
in Moldova
in the middle of the XVI century, constant incursions of the Turks and Crimean
Tatar, increase of duties, the town development had been happening slowly and
the country was in decay. Firstly being a boyar and since 1641 a monastic
patrimony, Chisinau (Kishinev)
was repeatedly destroyed. The first remaining schemeof Chisinau (Kishinev)
refers to the beginning of the XIX century. It testifies about the fact that
the town in the middle of the XIX century constituted the assemblage of dirty
pise houses with reed roofs without firmly determined districts and streets.
The Bik was partitioned off with dams with mills and mechanisms for skin
processing and leather manufacture. Over the dwelling part of the town swarms
of flies and gnats were hovering. The Bik used to frequently overflow. The
puddles and bogs were the consequence of winter flood and autumn rains.

In ancient time villages of
Buiucani, Munchesti, Visterniceni, Hrusca, Vovinteni were gradually united with
the town. During the Russian-Turkish wars our town was twice set on fire by the
retreating Turkish, in 1739 and 1788. As a result of the number of
Russian-Turkish wars the territory between the rivers of Dniester, Prut, and
Dunai in 1812 became a part of the Russian Empire, and got the name of
Bessarabia, and Kishinev, having got an official status of town in 1818 became
a centre of the Bessarabian district and since 1873 the centre of the
Bessarabian guberniya (province). If from 1812 till 1818 the Kishinev population had increased from 7 up
to 18 thousand people, by the end of the century it had grown up to 110
thousand. However, the growth of population was happening not at the expense of
the natural increase, but due to the emigration processes. Those years Kishinev was the centre
point of the industrial manufacture. It had rather developed economic connections
with the other areas of Russia.

The planned building of the
town was begun in 1818. In 1834 the government adopted a general plan of the Kishinev development. From
1829 till 1834 wells, that provided the most part of the population with water,
were improved in Kishinev.
At the expense of the Town Council (Duma) the spring was arranged in the district of Mazarache
Church. For a long time, the whole town was supplied with its water carried in
barrels.

The railway station was built in 1870, and in
1871 the connection on the Tiraspol-Kishinev way was opened.

After the October
Revolution of 1917 «Sfatul Terii» (a representative organ) began to function. It proclaimed the
creation of the Moldovan Democratic Republic on 2 December. On 13 December, in
accordance with the «Sfatul Terii» call, Romanian troops run by general Brosteanu entered the Bessarabia. On 27 March 1918 «Sfatul Terii» voted for the Bessarabian
unification to Romania
and Kishinev
became a part of it. On 1 January of 1919 the Municipal Conservatoire (the
Academy of Music) was created in Kishinev, in 1927 - the Faculty of Theology,
in 1934 the subsidiary of the Romanian Institute of social sciences, in 1939 -
municipal picture gallery. Those years the quantity of the city population was
not increasing, and in June 1941 Kishinev
had 110 thousand people.

On 28 June 1940 the Soviet
troops came to Kishinev, and on 2 August of that
year Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was set up, with the capital in Kishinev. In 1940 the
ceremonial opening of the State Philharmonic Society took place, on 23 August
1940 the Pedagogical University (today the Pedagogical University
after I. Kryanga) was created, in November 1940 the State Museum of Fine Arts. Kishinev badly suffered
from the earthquake in 1940.

From the first hours of the
Great Patriotic War, on 22 June 1941, Kishinev
became a front-line city; when it was dawning Kishinev was subjected to aircraft
bombardment and soon occupied by the Romanian troops. On 16 July 1941 the
Romanian flag was hoisted over the dome of Cathedral. 18 August 1941 Romanian
King Mikhai and Marshal Ion Antonesky examined Kishinev. For Kishinev the war finished on 24 August 1944
when the Soviet warriors entered the city. It was a result of the
Yassko-Kishinevskaya operation. There were not any intensive battles in the
city area, but as a result of bombings and earthquakes the city was practically
destroyed and the housing was lost up to 70%.

After World War II the city
was being re-established and growing very fast. If in 1944 it only had 25
thousand inhabitants, by 1950 it had had 50 thousand.

For the purpose of
«restoration and development of the national economy» from the different
regions of the Soviet Union about a thousand
and a half different specialists were directed: engineers, teachers, doctors
etc. In 1945 the Second Leningrad Institute of Medicine came to Kishinev from evacuation
together with its unique library, where the manuscripts of the Avisenna had
kept. The cultural life of the country and city was stimulated.

13 August 1945 the «Jok» ensemble, that is glorious all over the world now, was
created.

In 1945-1947 the general
scheme of the Kishinev
reconstruction was approved. Academician A. Shusev took part in the elaboration
of it.

On 1 October 1946 the Kishinev State University
was created.

On 6 October 1949 the Academy of Sciences of Moldova was founded.

On 18 June 1950 the
Botanical Gardens of Academy of Sciences were laid.

On 24 January 1957 the
studio «Moldova-Film» was created.

In 1957 the ceremonial
opening of the alley of classical authors took place.

The «Luciaferul» Theatre
was created in 1960.

The National Palace was opened in 1974, the Organ Hall - on 15 September 1978, the new
building of the National Opera-House - in 1980, the Moldovan State
Circus - in 1982.

Intensive economic and
social development of the city assisted the migration mobility of the
population. Moreover, it was being increased both owing to the agricultural
population of the Republic (60%) and the specialists arrived from the other
regions of the Soviet Union. The intake of
immigrants in 1980 doubled in comparison with 1950. The birth of the
500-thousand Kishinev
inhabitant was celebrated in 1979.

In the late 50s the new
branches of industry began to develop in the capital of Moldova: device
and machine engineering, further development was happening in the light and
processing branches of industry; the tobacco plant and wine making enterprises
were modernized. Since the late 70s electronic industry was being developed.
But, in spite of the considerable volume of investments in the city economy in
the Soviet period, its production is not able to compete in the international
market and is chiefly supplied to the developing and socialist countries. The
production of enterprises processing agricultural production, that is very
frequently better in comparison with the western analogues, because of their
taste qualities, do not find a market in the West due to the absence of
attractive packaging and necessary advertisement in the international market. Predominantly,
the food products are delivered to the former republics of the Soviet Union. On 31 August 1989 the Supreme Council of
the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a decision concerning returning
the Latin alphabet to the Moldovan language and claimed the Moldovan language
to be the state one.

In 1990 the institute of Mayor was reestablished in the Republic.
The first mayor was N. Kostin. Now this post is occupied by Serafim Urecheanu.

On 27 April the law about tricolour that is streaming over our city was
adopted. On 3 September the institute
of President was introduced in Moldova. The
first president of Moldova
became Mircia Snegur. Nowadays the president of Moldova is Petru Lucinschi.

On 23 May 1991 the
Parliament substituted the name of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic for
the Republic of Moldova. 27 August 1991 the declaration
of independence of the Republic
of Moldova was adopted. It
proclaimed the Moldova to be
an independent state with the capital in Kishinev.